XFX will not offer Fermi-based graphics cards at launch

Nvidia's Fermi architecture finally debuted late last week with the launch of GeForce 480 and 470 cards. But while most manufacturers have come out with their respective models since then, one of Nvidia's biggest partners for the best part of a decade is noticeably missing from the scene: XFX.

I think this has to do with the fact that XFX could not offer the normal Double Lifetime Warranties.
The question of what the warranty terms from EVGA, Palit, and BFG aren't yet divulged; but if the picture is true it tells why XFX isn't wanting to release these early chips. Something tells me XFX was negotiating with Nvidia to help assist in any excessive failure rate and Nvidia finally said no-can-do!

Noticed here that this Mwave page that got upload early shows all the AIB’s of GTX4XX cards indicating Only ONE Year warranties?
http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news/2010/3/26/e-tail-watch-gtx-470-is-243502c-gtx-480-is-245002c-oc-models-available.aspx

Well, we get to see more and more little snippets of just what kind of business people nVidia really are... So now they are (allegedly) punishing XFX, one of their best brand platforms, because they couldn't sit around and wait for nVidia to FINALLY get their butts in gear and get some hardware out? Really, nVidia? I mean, were they just supposed to sit and stagnate and hope they didn't go bankrupt waiting for your stuff to finally hit so that they could maybe sell something? And, coincidentally, get left in the dust by all their competitors who are selling ATi cards left and right?

You know, the more I hear and see regarding nVidia's tactics, the less I am inclined to ever buy anything they make ever again... Pity, I really like their integrated graphics chipsets and PhysX.

I'm having a hard time deciding if I should get a gtx 4xx series card or get a Radeon 5xxx series card. I already have a GTX 260 which I was going to use as a dedicated PhysX card, so the GTX 470 looks like the card I would get, but the Radeon 5850 and 5870 are very compelling in about the same price range. Then there's always the early adopter's regret when soon thereafter, a new Fermi card is released with all 512 CUDA cores operational. The 5870 is a really good card with a better pricetag than the GTX 480, but the Fermi architecture is much faster at DX11 operations than the 5xxx series, and DX11 will be adopted much more quickly than DX10. I'm leaning towards the GTX 470, but it will make my PSU bleed.

Video card manufacturers would be smart to look at the liability, both in terms of money and reputation, with selling these Fermi cards. These things look like they're just ready to overheat and break down, possibly damaging other system components. While most of the blame will lay on Nvidia, people will still look negatively at the company that manufactured the card. Smart move to let other manufacturers to fall on any potential grenades. If the cards appear to be a success, they can always make them too.

Can you imagine their last driver problem coupled with these Fermi cards? People's regular Nvidia cards fried, can you imagine what would happen with one or two of these puppies in that situation?

My last two cards have been XFX cards and have no reason to buy anything else - they make a terrific GPU.

I'm with Vrmithrax. I used to be a huge nVidia fan and have used their products exclusively for I don't know, 10-15 years now? But their recent practices - and products - is really leaving a sour taste in my mouth.

I'm not buying a new GPU until next spring, but I'm already 90% sure it's going to be an ATI card. nVidia is really going to have to make some very positive noise to get my attention again.

My last two cards have been XFX cards and have no reason to buy anything else - they make a terrific GPU.

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Too bad NVIDIA designs the GPUs and that almost all GPUs are made in the same factory.

All XFX can do is a different warranty, look, cooler, PCB, frequencies and/or memory. And yes, maybe you get a game with the package, but the GPUs are all the same.

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I think you are splitting hairs there, Bolletje... TomSEA was obviously referring to the graphics card product package (which is independently manufactured), not the GPU chip itself. It's very common to call those graphics cards GPUs, even if it's not 100% semantically correct.

As you said, nVidia's GPUs are made by them alone. As such, they can either be put on complete crap graphics cards, or on quality reliable cards like the XFX brands have proven themselves to be.

XFX is my preferred manufacturer for graphics cards. Their double lifetime warranty is amazing and their tech support has been good to me when I needed an RMA. However if you forget to register your purchase within 30 days, they wont honor the lifetime warranty (defaults to 1 year i think). Which is a real annoyance. Other than that, I've preferred nVidia GPU's for years now as often times my older cards get dumped into a linux box and nVidia linux support has been decent. But ever since AMD acquired ATI they've been much better proponents of linux support than even nVidia so now the decision isn't so cut and dry but makes sticking with XFX an easy choice.

I guess I am having trouble understanding the supposed "punishment" by Nvidia against XFX for switching to ATI. Last I checked when I was shopping for my 5870, all the major brands were selling the ATI 5000 series cards. So why would they punish XFX and not everyone else?

I never bought an ATI card until XFX started making them. All the hype about their quality in the past disuaded me, but XFX has the warranty. Which they have honored for me in the past twice. I had 2 GTX 280s die on me and XFX replaced them both free of charge. Also, Nvidia's drivers are horrible, especially for 3 way SLI. It barely even works. The only real performance gains I get from 2 280s to 3 is more anti aliasing because of the extra gig of RAM. As for Nvidias Fermi cards, we'll see how their dual GPU card looks. I have a 4850x2 from ATI, Sapphire actually, and that's bar none, the best single graphics card I've ever owned and I only paid $230 for it, where I paid $500 each for 3 GTX 280s. The 4850x2 performs far better than a single 280. Besides, I hardly even notice the PhysX effects anyway and it takes up WAY too much resources for what it does. What about CUDA? Doesn't seem like it even does anything at all, with the exception of my Power DVD 9 ultra.

Hmm maybe I need to start looking at ATI. I have been a fan of Nvidia for so long. I used to have a problem with ATI drivers on an old laptop and that kinda scared me away from ATI. But lately they seem to be making more of a bang in the gaming industry. I always bought BFG cards as I always liked their service,never owned anything XFX but I know that they are as reputable as BFG.

I am an IT guy for a major organization and we have a alot of laptop/workstation failures due to a Nvidia GPUs. Last year alone we had over a dozen. We have stopped purchasing PCs with Nvidia GPUs. I don't think that trend is going to end with this new GPU. I would not waste my money on a GPU that is on the verge of overheating and is just going to fail in few months anyway. I don't blame manufacturers from staying away from it.

I agree, ATI game physics are almost as good as Nvidia's PhysX. Unless you've played a game more than once you normally don't notice PhysX effects any more than you would ATI game physics. And ATI physics don't need a separate card just to run it. I do admit, sometimes ATI has issues rendering shadows. But Nvidia has issues just as bad if not worse when it comes to fog or smoke and even fire in some cases, like in Bad Company 2, even with 280s in SLI OC'd everytime I can see fire on the screen the frame rate drops below 20 frames when it was just 60 with like 10 guys on the screen. And on Arkham Asylum too, everytime you see fog the frames drop to lagging levels, my friend with 8800s in SLI has the same issues. PhysX licks.

Are guys following what you write, notice all these replys are "ATI THIS ATI THAT" forget ATI, Nvidia has actually been more successful with Fermi something that ATI's 5XXX cards can't accomplish. It has been proven in benchmarks that the GTX480 is the fastest single GPU out in the market, And if you compare Eye Candy with Nvidia and ATI, Nvidia my friends has got the lead, Fermi performs ten times better that 5XXX in DX11, and since when does ATI have physics???? never cuz thats a purchased name brand by "NVIDIA" something ATi can't touch or even own in a life time. So please ATi Fanboys, check your specs and research cuz from what i hear even the GTX 470 in sli is beating the 5870 Xfire out the box. ATI = Fail and NVIDIA = FTW! Personally i got a GTX 470 and all the heat talk is BS. my card doesn't get hotter then 71C at game load, and idel is 44C, and thats with all the eye candy. So please all you ATI kids need to stop lying to your selves. Even all that ATI CLOCK CORE and MEM FREQ. doesn't compare to Nvidia's Technology, bring a 5870 down to GTX 470 clock speeds, and see who fastest, thats what ATI is only clock speed and mem freq, While nvidia is techology and quality, and yes XFX deserves being put to the side. For the person who said BFG, EVGA, makes ATI, do some effing research before you type, go to their web sites, and see if you find ATI cards for sale, on those two manufacture web sites. XFX is really not a good partner with Nvidia, EVGA is, i've never seen an EVGA ATI card in my life, And look at EVGA didn't sell that 5XXX crap, and its still a bigger more popular company then XFX? My grandma even knows who EVGA is, and she's 80. So please hit your selves in the head and wake up, cuz you guys don't want to admit that fermi is the way to go, especially if your looking at DX11 games, Fermi is the way go. YAY to Fermi!!!, EFF ATI!